Field Level

The following standards apply to coding Printer file DDS at a field level:

Define fields by reference to the field dictionary using the DDS REFFLD keyword:
Where printer file field names need to be different from the names of database or display device fields from which they are derived, use a ‘$ for the first character, instead of the system prefix.
Isolate text literals into message file descriptions.
Use relative positioning for device file field positioning, that is, ‘+n’ rather than absolute positioning: this makes changing code easier.